


project ALEX

by reachedthebitterend



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, angsty, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 10:21:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23969779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachedthebitterend/pseuds/reachedthebitterend
Summary: alex is part of a caulfield experiment to give humans alien powers
Relationships: Alex Manes & Nora Truman, Isobel Evans & Alex Manes, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 3
Kudos: 56





	1. stage one

**Author's Note:**

> first part posted on tumblr on 04/17/20

Jim stops Jesse before he can walk into the room, resting one hand on his arm.

Jesse stops, but only just, and turns to face Jim, looking at him expectantly, but already knowing what it is that he’s going to say.

“This isn’t right, Jesse,” he says in a low voice. “The soldiers knew the risks and they volunteered for this. Alex is only a child-”

“Your concerns were noted before, and they’re noted now,” Jesse says, moving away from Jim. “The committee voted and agreed that as his father, the decision falls to me.”

Jim lets his hand fall back to his side, and he clenches his jaw, staring at him determinedly.

“We’ve never tried the serum on someone this young,” Jim tries instead. “It could burn him out from the inside out. It could kill him, Jesse.”

Jesse looks at Jim, and he can tell that he’s thinking about his own son, around Alex’s same age, but Jesse doesn’t have time for this.

He needs results. Results are the only thing that will convince his superiors that the work that they are doing here is not in vain.

The enemy needs to be stopped, but they have abilities, and while they have figured out how to counter the effects, that’s only temporary. They need a way to fight back, and Jesse is positive that it’s going to work this time.

The group of scientists and doctors working on the serum and performing the tests came to the conclusion that soldiers were just too old. They needed to test the serum on someone old enough to understand and answer questions, but young enough that their bodies were still changing, in order for the serum to work with the changes over time, instead of burning out the volunteers before they could even begin to understand how to use their new abilities.

“I’ve taken that into consideration,” Jesse says, and Jim just takes a step away from him like he can’t believe that Jesse would go through with this when there is a chance that Alex could die, but Jesse is willing to do anything to stop the alien threat.

When he doesn’t say anything else, Jesse dismisses Jim from his attention and walks into the room, the door opening and shutting automatically behind him.

The room was big with off yellow walls and bars on the windows. There was a square section right in the middle of the room, cut off from the rest of the room by ceiling to floor glass panels that split open on one side. Inside were two small hospital beds, with two monitors connected to each side, and a blood transfusion machine right in between.

One of the things that they didn’t mention in the meeting, that even Jim didn’t know about, was that in order to make sure the changes took, they were going to have to give Alex a full blood transfusion, before they administered the serum.

Dr. Holmes nods her head at him as soon as she sees him, telling him that everything looks good.

Jesse just inclines his head and walks closer to the center of the room.

Alex was already lying back in one of the hospital beds, sedated and groggy, wires connected to his head, an IV in the crook of his arm, needles in his carotid and femoral arteries, slowly but surely draining him of blood. 

He looks too pale already, and his breathing is starting to get shallow, when the door opens again, and subject N-39 is being brought into the room.

She’s catatonic and lets them pull her into the room, until she sees Alex lying back in the bed, and then she turns feral, pulling away from the soldiers and pushing them backwards until she’s by Alex’s bed.

Jesse lifts a hand when he sees the men inside of the room, pulling out their guns. “Stand down,” he orders, and they do.

Subject N-39 leans over Alex, placing her hand on his cheek, and he turns to her, seeking out the heat of her hand, eyes fluttering open.

She says something too low for Jesse to hear, but it makes Alex exhale and lean further into her touch.

She turns around and grits her teeth at them all. “Do what you will. I will _not_ harm this child.”

Her voice is hoarse with disuse, but she stands in front of Alex, determined.

“Good thing that’s not what we need you for,” Jesse says, and her gaze snaps to him, and she looks like she doesn’t understand what he’s saying.

Jesse nods his head, and the soldiers step forward again, easily overpowering her since she backed herself into a corner by Alex’s side.

They administer a sedative before she can even begin to fight them off again, and she goes limp and docile.

Jesse watches them put her on the next bed, and start hooking her up to the machines.

Jesse steps closer to the glass when they flip the switch and turn on the machine.

The blood transfusion takes two hours, and Dr. Holmes monitors both the subject and Alex carefully, but it works.

While the others get subject N-39 hooked up to an IV to replenish the blood that she just lost, Dr. Holmes opens the case with the serum and takes out the vial.

She administers the serum in doses. A quarter of a full dose then five minutes later half of a full dose then ten minutes later a full dose and steadily increasing over the course of an hour until the vial is empty.

It takes ten more minutes.

Alex whines low in the back of his throat, and subject N-39’s eyes fly open.

She sits up in the bed, looking over at Alex with wide eyes, so clear for a second that Jesse thinks all of the drugs are out of her system,

But then Alex whines again, a little louder, and moves, shaking his head from side to side, hands clenching to fists, and all the electrical equipment in the room starts malfunctioning, which is normal.

And then subject N-39 drops back to the bed, shutting her eyes tightly and turning her head to the side, raising one hand to cover her other ear, like she can hear something that none of them.

There is a loud beeping sound coming from the EEG machine, and the EKG machines beeping starts going faster and faster and faster, and then Alex is sitting up in the bed, eyes open wide, but vacant, and he screams, so loud and pitched so high that everyone in the room flinches away, covering their ears.

There is a loud cracking sound, and then the glass surrounding Alex shatters and breaks with a noise almost like an explosion.

Then just as quickly as it began, Alex drops back down on top of the bed, unconscious, heart rate falling fast, until it’s at a resting rate.

Dr. Holmes turns to Jesse, who straightens up and looks at the state of the room.

“Stage one, complete,” he says, and Dr. Holmes nods her head, and turns so that they can begin the process of taking Alex to a more secure room.

Subject N-39 is staring right at Alex, and there are tears in her eyes.

*

Hundreds of miles away, deep in the Turquoise Mines, where the darkness is so big it almost eats the soft glow given of by the three egg-like pods, the boy that will be known as Michael Guerin, is deep in stasis when a piercing psychic scream tears through the room.

It hits the pods and the liquid inside shudders and ripples.

Michael inhales sharply, and opens his eyes.


	2. child or weapon

“Mom,” Maria calls, loud and demanding. She’s nine and standing right on the black rubber ledge that separates the playground from the rest of the park.

Mimi turns towards her, and Maria smiles bright, and then points towards the swing. “Come swing me please!”

“Give me a minute, baby,” she says, and looks down at her watch to make sure that the time is right.

The sound of a car approaching catches her attention and she looks up and can just make out Jim in the driver’s seat.

Her heart jumps to her throat when she sees Alex sitting down in the seat beside him.

It’s only been three years since Jesse told everyone that Alex is attending a boarding school overseas, but she feels like it’s been forever, especially because she feels like that’s not the whole truth.

She could see it in Jim’s eyes when he begged her to do this for him.

Mimi was only here with her daughter because she trusted Jim, and because she wanted to see Alex, to make sure that he was okay.

Alex’s gaze locks on to her, and Mimi can feel it, almost like a psychic shock.

She shudders as she breathes in deeply, and lifts her hand to press it against the pendant pressed close to her heart.

 _Oh no_ , she thinks. _What have they done to him?_

Jim gets out of the car first, and he waves at her walking around to the passenger side door.

Alex waits until Jim opens the door before he even unbuckles his seatbelt.

Mimi is so intently watching him that she doesn’t notice that Maria has moved to stand next to her until she’s speaking up.

“Who is that with Uncle Jim?” she asks, sounding curious.

Mimi wraps a hand around one of Maria’s, keeping her at her side.

“An old friend,” she says, looking down at Maria who looks up at her, brows furrowed. “Do you remember Alex?”

She seems to think about it for a second, before she smiles bright and happy.

“Alex!” she yells, pulling away from Mimi.

Alex startles, and Mimi jumps when the light post closes to him, sparks with static and Jim’s car alarm goes off.

 _Oh no_ , she thinks again and stares as a smile crosses Alex’s face, like he recognizes Maria as well, and they hug tightly, before Maria grabs his hand and drags him over to the swings, talking a million miles a minute about everything that Alex has missed during the last three years.

Mimi watches them run pass her, a little lost in her thoughts so she startles when Jim speaks up from beside her.

“Thank you for doing this,” he says, and Mimi turns to face him, raising an eyebrow in question.

Jim shrugs and then exhales roughly.

“What is going on?” she asks when he doesn’t immediately fess up the truth. “Because I knew that Jesse was up to no good when he told everyone he’d put Alex in boarding school overseas, but something’s different about him.”

Jim looks away from her, standing beside her and they both turn their gaze to the kids.

Maria is sitting on the swing, laughing with joy as Alex pushes her higher.

“Project Shepherd,” he says and Mimi freezes beside him, turning to look at him, but he keeps staring straight ahead. “A young scientist came up with the idea to create a serum to integrate the alien DNA into a human host, to see if it gave them the same abilities. The bad news was that it worked. The worse news was that it caused all participants to become so overheated that they basically melted from the inside out before they could even begin to learn to control their new abilities.”

Mimi turns from Jim back to the swings in time to see Maria jumping down from too high and laughing as she tumbles and then gets to her feet and urges Alex to sit down.

“But they figured it out,” she says.

“Unfortunately,” he exhales. “There are still some issues. He has to have a blood transfusion every four months, but it had been every couple weeks last year. If they can figure out how to stabilize the process, I’m afraid that they might start even younger.”

Mimi just breathes evenly and closes her eyes tightly before she turns back to Jim who is looking at her.

“What are you planning to do?”

Jim inhales, but a voice speaks out from behind them.

“That’s what I would like to know,” they both turn as one to face Jesse, who is looking at Jim like he’s disappointed him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, but doesn’t wait for Jim to answer. “They told me that you’ve been doing this for months, that you said I gave the order. What exactly are you doing when you take him out of the Facility?”

Jim just takes a step forward, putting himself between Jesse and Mimi, “You can’t just keep him isolated. He needs to socialize with children his own age, or he’ll turn into a recluse. Is that what you want?”

Jesse just gives him an impassive look. “What does it matter? The results are good with or without socialization.”

Jim just shakes his head at him. 

“What about his well being?” Mimi interrupts, and Jesse turns to her like he’d forgotten that she was there. “He’s _your_ child, Jesse. Don’t you care?”

“He’s not a child,” Jesse says, shaking his head at her, and giving her a look like he can’t believe that she’s this stupid. “He’s a weapon.”

Mimi inhales sharply at that, pressing her hand back over the pendant.

Jesse smiles a smile at them both that turns Mimi’s blood cold. “You may think I’m a monster,” he says. “But what we’re doing is going to save everyone on this planet. And I will sacrifice anything that I have to do it.”

Before anyone can say anything else, Maria is running up to Mimi.

“Mom! Mom! Mom!” Mimi turns to her and finds Maria holding her hand out. There is a smudge of blood on her finger, but when Mimi grabs her hand she doesn’t see a cut.

“I scratched by hand on accident, but Alex cured me! Look!” she says in an excited whisper, and wiggles her hand in Mimi’s face.

Mimi opens her mouth to speak, but Jesse walks pass her, bumping into her, and making her stumble a few steps forward.

She pulls Maria close to her, and Maria makes a questioning noise, but hugs her back, pressing her face to Mimi’s chest.

Mimi inhales deeply, and stares as Jesse grabs Alex’s arm, and pulls him along.

Alex’s face goes uncomfortably blank, nothing like the boy who had smiled at Maria, and he walks after his father, moving rapidly.

Jesse puts him into the passenger seat and closes the door before he’s even properly sitting down.

Mimi watches as they leave and then she turns to Jim. “What are we going to do?”

Jim gives her a helpless look, and Mimi just closes her eyes and breathes in deeply.

-

Standing next to the swings with their heads tilted to the same side, wearing identical expressions are Max and Isobel Evans, who stare as Jesse drags Alex away, and then turn to look at each other, the same thought in both of their heads, _It’s not_ him, _but he’s like_ us.

-

Nora is lying back looking up at the cracked white ceiling when she feels a tap right against her mental shields, and then another and another, tapping out a secret code that Nora had taught only two people in her life.

She exhales carefully and closes her eyes.

Alex appears in her mindscape immediately, smiling bright and happy when he sees her, and he rushes towards her and she knows that he’s been outside because he smells like grass and sunshine, and he tells her all about how he almost went flying today, and then smiles endearingly at her, “Want to see?”

Alex had latched on to her as the only other alien he had contact with, and she also thinks that it’s something to do with her blood in his veins, how they can reach each other so easily.

Nora had let him because of how much pain she could feel he was in, especially in the beginning. It was getting better, easier for him to deal with the process, and it both made Nora happy and scared. Happy that he wouldn’t be in pain anymore, but scared at what they were going to do with him afterwards.

Nora had no faith that these humans were not doing something terrible, and she knew that the others would do everything that they could to destroy the abomination that the humans had created, but he was just a child who had no choice, so she had lied and kept his identity a secret.

She smiles at him now, and presses her hands to his face nodding her head. “Show me.”

He closes his eyes and pulls her into his memory.

She finds herself outside, and turns away from where she can see him on the swing, looking up at the clear blue sky and breathing in deeply.

She closes her eyes and enjoys the warmth for a moment before she hears Alex’s laughter, bright and happy and she turns to look at him.

She stops moving when her gaze is caught by two other children, standing further away, both looking at Alex with furrowed brows.

They were so familiar, and looked well and most importantly _alive_.

Nora felt the relief crack her in half and pull them out of the memory before she could search for _him_ , for her boy.

“Did you see him?” she asks, almost desperately looking at Alex intently.

Alex blinks rapidly at her, “I-I-I-I don’t-don’t-know.”

She grabs on to him, and holds him tight, “Just try to remember. Was he there? A boy their same age, curly hair?”

Alex goes tense immediately, and then he’s struggling in her hold, pulling away, and breathing heavily.

“Alex,” she starts, and he gasps.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” he cries out and then drops to the floor, curling up, fingers in his hair. “I can’t remember! Please don’t hurt me!”

Nora breathes in deeply and tries to calm herself down. She kneels down beside Alex, and when she places a hand to his shoulder, he flinches and drags her into his head subconsciously.

She finds herself in one of the interrogation rooms, with Alex strapped to a chair, a computer in front of him, images flashing. They ask him questions, and shock him when he can’t answer.

Nora pulls out of his head, and places her hand on top of his head, pushing the memory away gently.

She sits down beside him, and wraps an arm around him, holding him close to her chest.

She hums a soft lullaby that she used to sing to her boy when he got fussy as a baby and Alex slowly starts to relax against her until he’s holding on to her just as tight as she is.

She keeps humming, resting her head on top of his and closes her eyes.

She doesn’t know how to help him, not really, but she’ll do everything that she can to make sure that they don’t permanently destroy this sweet and kind boy who only came to show her his memory of outside because he knows that she misses the sunshine.

-

Hundreds of miles away, in a small overcrowded house in Santa Fe, Michael Guerin turns around in the small thin cot he sleeps in the small room he shares with five other kids, brow furrowing as his nightmares take a turn for the worse, and then he hears a low humming filling his head, a soft song that sparks a memory of feeling safe and loved, and he buries his face into the thin pillow, and sighs, nightmares disappearing like smoke, leaving behind the smell of grass and sunshine.


	3. imprint

“Slow down!” Max yells as Michael goes over the hill and then down the steep incline.

The motocrossed style bike that Max had begged for for his birthday does its job, but the two of them on the bike are still too heavy so it goes off balance, sending them both rolling down, the bike landing on a slide right in front of Isobel.

Isobel stares as Michael and Max just laugh, rolling around in the ground and she thinks that what she really should’ve asked for her fifteenth birthday was a new friend.

Michael stops laughing, sitting up and looking back over the hill, brow furrowed.

Isobel feels a zing go through her, and she inhales sharply, the same feeling that she and Max had felt years ago when they had seen that kid playing with Maria DeLuca in the park.

She turns to Max, who turns to her at the same time, but before they can do or say anything, Michael is scrambling to his feet, and then he’s running back up the hill.

Isobel follows right after him, Max bringing up the rear.

Michael is already by the wooden fence and dropping to his knees before she makes out that there is someone sitting on the floor, legs pulled close to their chest, head on their knees, short messy dark hair peeking through their fingers as they clutch their head, wearing clothes that look like they just escaped an insane asylum.

Isobel moves to get closer, but Max holds her back, wrapping his fingers around her wrist and stopping her movements.

She turns to look at him, and he just shakes his head.

Isobel turns back in time to see Michael place his hand over the person’s head.

They flinch, pushing backwards even though they have nowhere else to go, and their eyes dart around, not really taking anything in, and then Michael is dropping into their field of vision and their attention is caught up entirely by him.

Max only moves when the person places their hands on either side of Michael’s head.

Isobel still gets to them before him, dropping to her knees beside them, Max on their other side, but neither of them seem to notice, just staring at each other, eyes wide.

“Michael,” Max says, and Michael blinks, breaking eye contact, and the person, who Isobel can now tell looks to be about their age, and probably a boy, just follows Michael with his gaze, when he turns to Max.

Isobel makes a noise, and then that gaze snaps to her, and she freezes, looking into dark brown eyes, and she feels something almost click deep inside of her, and she knows that no matter what happens now, this person is going to become very important in her life.

Isobel reaches out with one hand, almost like she can’t help herself and places the hand right on top of his head.

She closes her eyes and pushes and they both inhale sharply. She opens her eyes and finds herself in a mindscape not unlike her own, vague and shimmering, and _Alex_ (a whisper tells her) looks at her with wide eyes, and she can feels his emotions, happy and terrified, and something deeper, that pulses with longing and loneliness.

“You’re like us,” she says, reaching out to touch him. “You’re never going to be alone again.”

He pushes her out of his head so hard that she goes falling backwards, having to catch herself with her hands.

Max and Michael move towards her, and Alex takes the opportunity to get to his feet and start to run.

“No,” Isobel calls out, ignoring both Michael and Max, who turn back towards Alex at the shout.

“Wait!” Max calls out, but Michael doesn’t even bother, he reaches out with both hands, and Alex goes flying backwards as Michael yanks him back.

He lands hard on his back, and they go running to catch up to him, but Alex gets to his feet in a move that looks like it could belong in a ninja movie, and he turns around on them, and before anyone can say anything else, he yells, loud, and it pushes sonic waves through the air, that push the three of them backwards and up into the sky.

Isobel yells as they go falling back down, and then something catches her, like the air is solid, and she turns to Michael, who is also caught, looking at Alex with wide eyes, but he doesn’t seem scared.

Isobel turns to face Alex, and sees that he’s still holding his hands out. He grunts and then falls to his knees, hands dropping to his lap, and they fall the rest of the way to the ground, which is only a couple of inches.

Isobel stumbles, but she takes a step towards Alex, and glares when Max stops her again.

“He’s just scared,” Isobel says. “Who knows where he’s been? What they’ve done to him?”

Alex has his hands pressed on either side of his head, and Michael doesn’t even hesitate as he walks right up to him, and drops to his knees in front of him again, and places his hands on top of Alex’s.

Isobel feels a spike of fear and then something warm and fizzy in the pit of her stomach as Alex opens his eyes to look at Michael, and she tilts her head and stares.

Alex’s gaze flickers to her briefly, but then he looks back to Michael who says something in a low voice that she can’t hear.

Isobel moves closer to see if she can make anything out, and she hears Alex say breathlessly, almost wondrously, “You have her eyes.”

And then he gasps and the two white bands wrapped around his wrists that Isobel had thought were bandages but now she notices that they are plastic and seemed to be pressed so tightly they’re fused to his skin, start to light up, flashing green and red, and then make a low whining sound, that starts to go higher and higher in pitch.

He pushes away from Michael, and looks at them all. “I’m sorry.”

Before Isobel can demand why he’s sorry, there is a bright flash of light, and then he’s gone.

Michael falls back on his heels and there is a black scorch mark where Alex had been crouched, but the only smell left behind was the smell that filled the air right before a huge rainstorm.

Isobel can still feel him, dull and muted, but there.

She breathes in deep and then turns to Max. “He’s mine.”

Max scoffs at her, giving her a highly incredulous look. “What are you talking about?”

“You got Michael!” She says, and very much doesn’t stomp her foot. “I get this one.”

Max opens his mouth, probably to protest that Michael doesn’t belong to him, but Michael speaks before he can.

“His name is Alex,” he says, and Isobel turns to him in surprise, wanting to demand how he possibly knew that. “And I think I know him, from before.”

Isobel blinks a few times at Michael and then turns back to Max. “We have to look for him. He could be in danger.”

Max inhales deeply and nods his head once, “We do. But we have no clue where to begin.”

Isobel deflates and turns back to Michael who is looking back at the space where Alex had disappeared.

“He managed to get to us once,” Max says, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Isobel turns to him trying not to pout.

“He’ll do it again,” he looks from her to Michael. “And we’ll figure out how to make him stay.”

-

Alex barely taps against Nora’s mindscape before he’s dropping inside, not caring that he feels so exhausted and worn out he can barely keep his eyes open, but he has to tell her, tell her he found _him_. The boy with the curly hair and the eyes that look just like Nora’s.

She startles when he’s suddenly there dropping to the ground in front of her, and she reaches out and steadies him, hands gentle as she cups his shoulders.

Her pale blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she tilts her head at him in concern and a touch of confusion, wondering about the impromptu visit.

Alex reaches for her, hands cupping her face.

“I found him,” he breathes and pushes the memory into her head.

It had been strange and terrifying, but Alex had never felt so _seen_ in his life. And by two people, Nora’s boy had taken him off guard and he had been scrambling for purchase when Isobel pushed into his head and gave him stability.

Alex wanted to see them again, but the teleportation thing was brand new, and he couldn’t control it, but he thinks it’s more like a rubber band than anything else, since he’d been tugged back to the place he had left.

The white bands around his wrists were embedded into his skin by tiny needles and the nanobots lived in there, and they monitored Alex at all hours, feeding the data into the computer feeds so that the scientists and doctors could go through his information without him needing to be there.

Nora pulls away from him then, and she stares at him for a long moment with bright eyes, tears streaming down her face and she leans close and presses a kiss to Alex’s forehead.

Alex shuts his eyes tight and takes the affectionate gesture and the feeling of love that exudes from Nora and holds them tightly in his chest, remembering exactly how it feels.

“Thank you,” she breathes. “Thank you so much.”

Alex blinks his eyes open and smiles at her for a second before he frowns, “I’m sorry I can’t take you to him.”

She shakes her head and tightens her hold on his arms gently, “Seeing him again, and looking so grown up. It’s more than I had hoped for in years.”

Alex smiles happily at her, and then sighs, eyes closing in exhaustion and she lets him go.

Alex turns his face into his pillow and exhales, feeling the exhaustion dragging him to sleep.

He hears something soft like someone softly strumming guitar strings and feels a warmth simmering at the back of his neck, and for the first time in his life, he falls asleep and there are no nightmares.


End file.
